


Screams do not sound the same

by Red_Lady



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternative Meeting Scenario, Mention of Death, Mention of Season Zero Yami, Millennium Puzzle, mention of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-10-10 19:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20533184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Lady/pseuds/Red_Lady
Summary: You’re not completely a goner if you admit you’re going slightly mad, right?Sometimes even the most incorruptible individuals need to take a moment to question themselves. Especially when experiencing random memory blackouts.





	1. I'm going slightly mad

**Author's Note:**

> An alternative meeting scenario I wrote while listening to "Control" by Halsey.

The screams, oh the screams. They still ringed in his ears, haunting and shrilling. It was the same sound of nails dragged slowly and painfully on the chalkboard. A sound that makes skin crawl and teeth clench. He never would’ve imagined a man burning alive could reach such high octaves. That sound alone would forever haunt his dreams. And the smell. The stench of burning flesh was nauseating. It had filled his nostrils and still lingered on his clothes. His stomach clenched at the sole thought. He had the compelling desire to throw up his dinner. It was terrifying and he couldn’t even remember what triggered the unfortunate sequence of events.

He had just witnessed the outcome of a game. The game he had apparently set on the moment but didn’t remember the rules of. Because the point was that he _couldn’t remember_. Had his mind erased those events in order to spare him the shock of realizing that he secretly was a sadistic teenager? But he was _sure _he was incapable of feeling any kind of pleasure in doing such horrible things. Wasn’t he?

Great! He was starting to question his own sanity. But you’re not completely a goner if you admit you’re going slightly mad, right? An insane individual would never admit such a thing. He refused to believe he was responsible of the man death. _Him_! Someone who firmly valued justice in its purest form! Someone who would never willingly hurt another human being! But sometimes even the most incorruptible individuals need to take a moment to question themselves. Especially when experiencing random memory blackouts.

Heart drumming in his ears he let himself drop back on the bed. This was going to be another restless night. An inverted pyramid, solid, heavy, _real_ was laying on his chest and he mindlessly traced its sharp edges still musing over the fact that the puzzle had been a constant in his life for the past eight years. Eight years of persistence had paid off and not long ago him, Yugi Muto, lonely teenager of Domino City, had finally put the last puzzle piece into place. Many things had happened since that day. He had finally been able to make some friends, the bullies seemed to be wary of him and he had set a man on fire without actually remembering doing so. And he was pretty sure the latter was _not_ a common practice amongst adolescents his age!

Looking up, through the window on the ceiling, he realized how late it was. Except for random creaks of adjusting wood and the distant call of a nocturnal bird, the house was completely silent. His grandfather was probably already in bed and fast asleep.

The thought of his old man ignited in him a spark of hope. He nodded to himself coming to the conclusion that Solomon Muto was probably the only one to be able to answer some more questions about the puzzle. 

“I’ll ask him tomorrow” he quietly muttered to himself. Now he seriously needed to catch some sleep.

Slipping the heavy chain past his head he took off the golden pyramid and hanged it at his bedpost like he had done many times before. Suddenly a weird thought crept into his mind like a flash of light in the darkest of nights. He did not remember exactly where he had heard of such a thing but inverted pyramids were supposed to be bearers of bad luck. Maybe the puzzle was cursed and by completing it he had accidentally doomed himself to a destiny of misfortune. No, now he was just being paranoid! Superstition was not his thing.

He chuckled, too scared to believe his own thoughts. “Maybe I’m seriously starting to lose my mind.”

_“I don’t think so”_

This time he knew the scream he was hearing was a hundred percent his own. A scream of utter and undeniable fear. It had been nothing more than a whisper but he had _heard_ it! He had _seen_!

And then the rumble of hurried steps and the sound of a worried familiar voice calling his name abruptly brought him back to reality.

“Yugi! What happened?” The door was thrown open and his grandfather’s worried eyes frantically searched his own. The old man was taken aback by the sight of his grandchild’s curled and trembling form at the feet of his bed.

“N-nothing” he took in a hard breath trying to prevent his fiercely thumping heart from jumping out of his throat.

“Nightmare?” the old man was clearly out of breath due to the scare the scream must have caused him. A barely noticeable nod was his only answer.

He averted his gaze, stubbornly staring at his left leg shaken by imperceptible tremors. The whole situation was surreal but he needed to get a grip on reality. If he could read Solomon’s expression right, the old man was suspicious and deeply worried.

So he slowly stood and sat back on his bed. He didn’t trust his own voice, even less his wobbly legs. In his panic, instead of freezing on the spot, he must have unconsciously bolted outside the bed desperately trying to find some kind of refuge. His “fight or flight” instincts seemed to be alright. One less thing to worry about. What a miserable consolation! 

He looked back at the old man who was still trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Yugi felt a pang of guilt seeing his troubled expression. He needed to get out of the predicament he had found himself in without worrying or possibly endangering the ones close to him.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine, really. It was just a nightmare. I’ll be all right.” He tried his best to lighten the mood but he was the first one not able to believe his own words. The truth was that he was just trying to reassure _himself_, failing miserably.

A nightmare.

How else could he explain the fact that a young man that looked exactly like his spitting reflection ad who was clearly _floating _above ground level, was the one who had answered him back?


	2. Symbiosis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You might benefit from symbiosis, but is it always true?

It took more than he had anticipated to convince his grandfather to go back to bed.

The old man had insisted in waiting in his room until he would fall back asleep but he had firmly refused. There was no way he was going to be able to sleep anytime soon and he didn’t want to burden his grandfather more than he already did.

When the door of his room finally closed, he slumped back on the bed. His heart was still beating extremely fast. Well, maybe it had picked up its speed as soon as he had heard the distinct click of the door shutting.

He was alone again. Alone with his “demons”.

Probably _demon_ was not the right term to address the presence that had manifested out of thin air into his room. Ghost, spirit or something like that.

What was he supposed to do? Should he have tried to summon said presence back into his room? He was not an expert in those kind of esoteric practices. What if it, _he_, was a malevolent spirit? The transparent being hadn’t tried anything funny the first time he had manifested. He didn’t get the chance to though, since he had started screaming as soon as his eyes had focused on the floating young man.

“I’m already here, there is no need to worry.”

Yugi winced by hearing that voice. It was deeper than his own, calm and soothing, but at the same time it unsettled him. He slowly turned his head, praying not to see what he already knew was there.

The floating young man was staring at him. Crossed arms, a strange glint in those curious eyes that seemed much sharper than his own. He looked like he was studying him, waiting for some sort of reaction, maybe another scream of fear. They stayed like that for quite some time. Perfectly silent, perfectly still, studying each other. 

Maybe he should just try to ignore him and pretend he was not real or figure out a way to convince his old man to burn the house down and find a new _not haunted_ place to spend the rest of his permanently scarred life in. The spirit rolled his eyes. He was clearly amused by the display of distress he himself had ignited in the other occupant of the room.

“I would suggest you not to set your house ablaze. It would be a real pity” he said scanning his surroundings with a curious and attentive look.

Wonderful, simply_ fantastic_! This entity was apparently able to read his mind. How was he supposed to get rid of … He cut his thoughts short, scared of angering his unexpected guest who simply raised an eyebrow at his poor attempt of concealing his apprehension.

Yugi was in a state of disbelief. Never in his whole life he would have expected something like this happening. So, after some more agonizing moments of silence, he asked the most obvious question: “Who are you?” _Assuming you are not just a figment of my imagination or an hallucination_, he would’ve wanted to add.

“That is something I would like to know too”.

He couldn’t read the other’s expression. He didn’t seem hostile or particularly dangerous. But maybe his judgment was filtered by the fact that it was like watching at his own reflection in the mirror. And he did _not_ consider himself too much frightening, quite the opposite.

“You’re not being helpful at all” he said, carefully eyeing the other. “ What am I supposed to do if I don’t even know who you are or what you’re here for?”.

“Oh, but I know what my purpose is, at least for the time being” the entity said with what could only be described as an ominous whisper.

“Care to share it with me?”. Yugi was getting impatient. It irked him not knowing what to do, how to react. A sardonic smile was thrown back at him “To protect the one who set me free from my millennial prison, of course”.

The spirit was playing games with him and was clearly having fun by trying to distress him more and more. The nerve of that ghost! Yugi was not the kind of person to easily lose his temper but the fluctuating young man was seriously starting to annoy him.

“Could you please stop talking in riddles? This whole situation is pretty much surreal and I still don’t know how to feel about all this, but I want to help you! I really do!” _so you can finally leave me alone._

The spirit wasn’t even listening to him anymore but was staring at something else. Yugi turned around trying to understand what got the other so interested and his eyes met the shining shape of the inverted pyramid.

“Why are you looking at the …”

“I would like to thank you, Yugi. Your help has been vital for me”. A strange sense of gratitude seemed to seep from every syllable. “You are very kind hearted indeed. It would’ve been an unfortunate inconvenience if that fugitive had actually managed to kill you”.

That was it! The Puzzle was cursed and by completing it he had set a complete lunatic free. There was no way the other knew about the man who had burned alive.

“How would you know? It’s not like you were there!”

“Haven’t you figured it out yet? You managed to complete the Millennium Puzzle but you still are only a naïve little boy!”

An unpleasant thought struck him like lightning.“Are you saying that the reason I barely remember a thing of that night is because …?”. He wasn’t able to complete the sentence. The look on the other’s face alone was all he needed to know that he was right. What had only been a frightening assumption became a truth.

“It looked like you needed some help. I merely took control of the situation”.

Yugi stared. It was the only thing he could do. The sound of haunting screams were abruptly brought back to his memory. Because now everything made sense. He was not going crazy, he was not _insane_. Even if all that had happened to that man was technically not his direct fault, _possession_ was still not a better scenario! 

“Aren’t you grateful? That little game of mine saved your friend life. And yours as well!”

“You killed a man”. It was not a question but a clear accusation.

“He had to be punished. I simply gave him what he deserved”. The floating man was defending his actions like what he had done was only part of a daily routine. Just a collateral effect.

Yugi’s head was spinning. The power of those words nauseated him. Who, in full possession of their mental faculties, would ever think they had the right to decide upon the life or death of another human being?

“I don’t pretend you to understand my reasons but I would like to clarify that I have no intentions in hurting you. It’s not like you have done something that need serious judgment, right?” The last sentence was meant to be sarcastic but Yugi felt every single particle of his blood turning into solid ice.

“No more games like that. Never again!” he repeated like a mantra.

“You’re not in your right state of mind at the moment. It’s understandable. But you don’t have much of a choice. We are linked to each other from now on whether you like it or not” the spirit was deadly serious.

Yugi was floored, he didn’t have the energy to fight back. He was tired but still determined to find a way to make the other aware he despised his remorseless behavior.

The spirit of the Puzzle was now looking at him with some kind of fondness, finally showing some mercy. “I believe it’s time for you to go back to sleep. It’s been an eventful day, you must be tired. I should probably retire too, I have a feeling you don’t like having me around”.

“Wait! What am I supposed to call you? _Other me_?!”. His voice was strained by exasperation.

“I like the sound of it”

If he had blinked, Yugi would’ve missed the swift way the other disappeared, retiring back into the Puzzle still hanging at his bedpost. The room fell into silence once again. 

It was not long after that he heard a familiar voice in the back of his head. He shivered. 

_Until next time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is. I’m sorry it took me over a month to post the second and last chapter of this little story of mine. University has been killing me and I’m currently sitting in front of my computer when I should be sleeping, I hope you enjoyed reading this small fic and, once again, please bear with my rusty English.

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank whoever found a little bit of time to read this.  
As I said in my first fanfiction I'm not a native English speaker but I'm constantly trying to improve myself.  
I started this short fic as a way to distract myself from a very stressful exam. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.


End file.
